A public hearing will be held in February for a gas pipeline booster station that seeks to renew its permit for emitting pollutants.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, which has a booster station at 117 Winns Lake Road, Comer, is seeking to renew its Title V Air Quality Operating Permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

A public hearing on the renewal will be held at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 2, at Comer Elementary School.

According to the EPD figures, the Transco booster station in Comer emits up to 185.3 tons of formaldehyde annually, along with 1,151 tons of carbon monoxide, 4,156 tons of nitrogen oxide, 24.7 tons of particulate matter, 7.1 tons of sulfur dioxide, 426.8 tons of volatile organic compounds, 25.7 tons of acetaldehyde and 25.7 tons of acrolein.

Those emissions numbers and additional data are available at http://www.georgiaair.org/airpermit/html/permits/draft.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC operates several compressor stations in North Georgia. These stations are used to drive compressor pumps, which move the gas through the transmission line, which provides natural gas up the eastern seaboard.

Some residents in the Transco area have voiced concerns about the pollutants and the possible health effects on nearby residents.

Such concerns were presented to the EPD at the Transco Title V renewal hearing in 2006 at Comer Elementary School.

“I am here on behalf of the community that lives in the Transco area,” said Jill McElheney at the 2006 meeting. “I believe these toxic emissions of Transco have been and continue to be a source of human suffering.

EPD officials responded to the comments.

“EPD recognizes that Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation – Station 130 emits several hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including formaldehyde, and that the HAPs emissions are a concern to the community near the facility,” an EPD official said, according to an online transcript of that meeting.

The EPD officials explained that the older Transco turbines and engines at the station are subject to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that regulate hazardous emissions.

However, the EPA determined that Transco was not required to replace old engines and turbines to improve emissions standards, “primarily due to the excessive cost of controls.”

EPD officials explained that they have no authority to require equipment upgrades.

“If Transco upgrades their compressor engines or replaces them with new equipment, even turbines, the facility-wide emissions will likely be reduced,” an EPD official said. “However, EPD does not have the authority to require Transco to upgrade their equipment in conjunction with the renewal of their Title V permit.”

In recent years, a local pipeline watchdog group, Citizens Organized for Pipeline Safety (COPS), requested that the Georgia Division of Public Health (GDPH) investigate Transcontinental Gas Pipeline to determine whether there was a link between contaminants from the facility and cancer cases in the area.

GDPH officials did not find such a link. The health officials concluded that cancer deaths were not elevated in the Transco area. Elevated miscarriages around the facility were also a concern. But the health report states that their investigation showed “the lowest percentage of fetal deaths in Madison County occurred in the census track where Transco is located.”

“Based on the results, GDPH concludes that exposure to the predicted formaldehyde levels in air for the closest residential areas to Transco are not expected to cause harmful health effects,” the report stated.
McElheney, the leader of C.O.P.S., refuted that claim, saying she presented the detailed data from the GDPH report on acceptable formaldehyde levels to an epidemiologist who concluded that the levels deemed “acceptable” in the report are too high.

"However, the EPA determined that Transco was not required to replace old engines and turbines to improve emissions standards, “primarily due to the excessive cost of controls.”"

Excessive cost? Well, EPA just can't hurt the profits of big business now, can it? After all, we are in a recession. The little people are such an annoyance!

Jill McElheney and Citizens Organized for Pipeline Safety (COPS) are right. EPA regulations should be carried out regardless of cost! Even the current rules aren't adequate; the least they can do is apply the law fully. This is just so wrong!!

This is so typical of big business/government. I just read that government harmful levels of lead in children have been reduced to half what they have been in the past. Yeah, now that business won't be hurt by the lower standards, now that they have made all their profits at the expense of damaged children for the past half-century. America didn't limit lead until 1978 having known of the danger for decades. Europe banned it in 1949; yes, all those countries suffering under that monster, socialism. We need to make some major changes in this country!

could you post the number to call to discuss how to collect and get water tested if your property on pipeline with stream running out near it.

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